(684) The young man and the sea-Rodman Philbrick

Books by this author: Freak the Mighty
                                 Max the Mighty
                                 The Fire Pony
                                 REM World
                                 The Last Book in the Universe

What I have in hand is "The Young Man and the Sea" published by Scholastic Inc. Yeah, most of us knows "The Old Man and the Sea." These two are different books by different authors.

Come to think of it, I don't remember borrowing any Scholastic books from the Silver City Public Library. Up until today, I have read three Scholastic books. All three are good in different ways. Wish I had come across books like that fifteen years ago. I had to trawled through hundreds of books to find stories that would interest my children and the stories must have some embedded messages that I want them to catch. If they have caught it, a simple question would elicit answers that I was looking for.

If not, I would steer conversation towards my desired topics. Before I pick up or drop off the child I want to talk to, I would have thought of a launching off topic that relates to the here and now of that child. Then having him or her as a captive audience in the car, I must achieve my goal within the ten minutes of that transport run. It was challenging to open the topic I had in mind, hop onto a book I know he or she had just read, ask leading questions that spur learning and application. Often the concluding thought would have to wait for the return run.

Whether this story mentioned is real or a tall tale, it made an exciting read. I think any thoughtful parents could use it to talk about character building. I know that salvaging a sunken boat has no relevance in an inland city. But the qualities that come with the task had universal significance.

Off hand I think the task demanded: perseverance,
                                                       hard work,
                                                       resourcefulness,
                                                       sacrifice,
                                                       willingness to ask adults for help,
                                                       ability to ignore ridicule from opposing camps,
                                                       ability to divide a huge project into bite size chunks,
                                                       willing to get one's hand or body dirty,
                                                       ... .
Are not these all qualities that any discerning parents would love to inculcate into our children?